Plug into the Sun

Renewable Energy Credits - Another source of income.

2011-09-21T13:51:00.000-07:00

A Renewable Energy Credit or REC, represents a positive environmental attribute from one megawatt-hour (or 1,000 kWh) of renewable energy generation. With the State of California mandating that utilities produce 33% of their electricity from renewable sources by 2020, RECs may soon have value.

Owners of solar photovoltaic systems can register their system with WREGIS (Western Renewable Energy Generation Information Systems), and begin the process of banking credits. Credits are not retroactive, and begin only once the system has been registered. While there currently is not a market to sell credits, new legislation, expected to be passed shortly, will allow a market for RECs. REC purchasers will fall into two categories, voluntary and compliance. Voluntary buyers are progressive organizations like Whole Foods, Intel, and PepsiCo that purchase RECs to offset their energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. Compliance buyers of RECs are electric utility companies or energy suppliers, who are required to get a certain percentage of their generation from renewable sources; this is called a Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS).

Synergy has joined forces with Leaf Exchange, to make it easy to register and track REC's. Who is Leaf Exchange:

The Leaf Exchange was created to provide a simple way for residential and commercial solar system owners to get educated, get registered, and get paid for their Renewable Energy Certificates. We believe the California REC market will mature in the coming years and become an important incentive mechanism for system owners, installers, and financiers. The Leaf Exchange provides REC market education, WREGIS registration services, and an online marketplace for customers to get the best value possible for their Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs).

The registration process is automated and takes about 15 minutes, and I can help any of our customers through this process.

The key is to register today, to start building the credits that can be exchanged into money in the future.
Leaf Exchange california Renewable Energy Credits

Installing the Bailey's Ground Mount

2011-09-14T08:39:00.000-07:00

Ground mount systems have more steps then systems mounted on a roof, can cost more, and have the advantage of easier access for cleaning, and production improvements since the angel and tilt are not dependent on the roof. The Baileys system offered a few unique challenges. The site had only one logical location for the array, along a vineyard row, against the fence. The design had to leave room for trucks to pass on the road, and have minimal height so as not to impact the neighbors view. The design was a 3 up panel system built into the hill at the edge of the road. Below the grader is clearing the bushes and widening the road.

Once we had the spot cleared the next step was drilling the holes and placing the posts for concrete pouring. Pictured below are Mike, Chaz and Gustavo alligning and bracing the poles.

The next step is pouring the concrete. Once the concrete was poured the customer added weed cloth, waddles and gravel to control weed growth below the array (below).

The next steps include cutting the poles to length, adding the horizontal poles, caps, braces and finally attaching the rails which the solar panels will be mounted to. Here Mike, Conor, Chaz and Gustavo allign the rails and put in grounding prior to panels being installed.

And the final step at the array is mounting the panels. This 54 panel system (Sharp 240 watt panels) is made up of 3 arrays with 18 panels each, designed to step down with the terran.

The final step was the electrical setup which included 2 SMA inverters to convert DC power to AC power, and a new meter main to handle tis increased load.

Today, 9/14/11 is the final inspection for the bailey system and it will be producing up to 10.5 kWh of energy for the Bailey's for many years to come.

Synergy and Sebastopol Educational Foundation initiate Community Solar Program with first $1,000 donation.

2011-08-31T15:26:00.000-07:00

This Month Synergy finished our first solar system installation, with the Sebastopol Educational Foundation (SEF), to kick off the Community Solar Program, donating $1,000 to the SEF.

Liz Schott, Superintendent of the Sebastopol Union School district, said at the kick off, "Sebastopol Educational Foundation (SEF) appreciates Synergy Solar & Electrical Systems for its dedication to the environment and to our district. In these challenging economic times, partnerships like this between SEF and Synergy Solar are crucial to maintaining the vitality of our local schools."

Scott and Averi were the first to install a solar system through the Synergy Community Solar Program with SEF. Scott Leonard explains why he chose to utalize this program:

"Averi and I are proud to help launch Synergy Solar’s Plug into the Sun SEP initiative —their new solar program that donates much needed dollars to the Sebastopol Education Foundation. We have three children in the Sebastopol school system and fully understand the growing need for funding. As a local green business owner, we’ve always been interested in reducing our carbon footprint, and as a Go Local Sonoma board member, it made perfect sense to go with Synergy as a local company. Our solar installation was just completed, and the experience was flawless with virtually no money out of pocket. Now that this unique program is off the ground, our community has a venue to reduce energy expense, protect the environment, and give significant amounts of money to our local schools--an amazing win, win and win situation. The Synergy staff made the entire process easy from start to finish, and we are pleased with the design, installation and the service. Our solar installation is an investment that has added to the value to our home, reduced our monthly expenses, and helped to preserve the environment while supporting our schools.

Scott Leonard

Chief Executive Officer

Indigenous Designs"

Jeff Mathias, co-owner of Synergy explains why Synergy is offering this program. "As a Sebastopol based business, we feel it is Synergy's responsibility to give back to our community. With all the cut backs our local schools have seen over the past year, it is our goal to fund some of the programs that would other wise be elliminated."

Synergy is a Sebastopol based solar installation company serving Sonoma County for over 20 years. We are launching a new community Solar program to help fund local schools. We are primarily a word of mouth company focusing our resources on our customers and local community. Please join us in reaching our goal of making a difference for Sebastopol children as well as contributing to local economy and the environment.

The Leonard's roof mount solar array.

Panels ready for the panel lift and installation

Chaz, Conor and Gustavo installing panels.

Analy community Solar Program off to a good start with $1,000 donation from Synergy.

2011-08-09T09:05:00.000-07:00

On July 1st Synergy kicked off the Community Solar Program for Sebastopol Schools. The first signed and installed customer, Dominic and Ellen Houlemard, signed up to install solar shortly after the kick off. Synergy installed a 5 kWh CEC-AC rated solar system at their home consisting of 24 Sharp 240 watt panels, and the new Enphase M215, 215 watt micro inverters with Enlighten performance monitoring.

Analy High School received a $1,000 check from Synergy, benefiting the Football program, where Dominic's son plays. With the new 2011-2012 year beginning, it is our hope the Synergy/Analy Community Solar program will provide Analy with much needed funding.

Chris Heller, Principle at Analy is Quoted " Analy High School values partnerships with the community and Synergy is another example of local business supporting our educational efforts."

Our first customer says it best;

We want to thank you and your staff for the excellent design and installation of the roof-mounted solar system at our house. In just under a month, we have silently generated over 1 MWh of electricity, doing our small part to reduce dependence on foreign energy sources. All aspects of the project were executed flawlessly. The Synergy crew was fantastic, working with PRMD and PG&E as required, and answering our endless technical questions.

There were several reasons we decided to install solar with Synergy. We were interested in a local company that used local resources. The Enphase equipment, designed by our neighbors in Petaluma, provides up-to-date electricity production status information. It is effective in a variety of shading conditions, maximizing production on these foggy Sebastopol summer mornings. Also, the Sharp panels are assembled here in the United States, which was a big plus for us. Synergy employees live and work here in Sebastopol. As parents of Analy student athletes, the contribution made to Analy Athletics on my behalf to the Synergy Community Solar program was an unexpected bonus. The attached photo shows the Analy football team in our yard prior to the synergy installation.

Our primary reason for installing solar was as an investment. With the bond, stock, and real estate markets feeling more like a roller coaster than a sensible place to grow our retirement nest egg, installing solar will not only add to the value of our home, it will reduce our monthly expenses, and is a great hedge against rising energy costs. One less thing to pay for in seven years as the price of energy increases! Synergy provided competitive pricing and a secure return.

You guys did great - you are free to use us as a reference as needed.

Dominic and Ellen Houlemard

Enphase M215 micro inverters installed on Iron Ridge Racking System

The system was installed in two arrays, 16 panels on the main roof.

8 tilted panels facing west on Garage.

The system is up and running and Dominic likes seeing how much energy he is producing every day, and how much he is saving.

Rosenberger-Hagen Installation

2011-07-01T16:30:00.000-07:00

Every new job has a unique twist, but this one had several. The first was getting the plans approved by the Bodega Harbor Home Owners Association HOA. The Owner did a great job of putting together the plans, and requirements for the HOA, an all black system, low profile to the roof with all conduit painted to match. To meet this requirement and the limited roof space available, Synergy chose the black framed Sanyo HIT 220 watt panels. The racking was Iron Ridge, with all black rails, clamps and feet. The Enphase Inverters mounted to the racking and are not visible. The result:

In addition the home had an antiquated electrical sub-panel, with no additional room to add the system. A large part of installing a system is making safe and code compliant electrical connections. Synergy relocated all the internal wiring from the existing sub-panel to two new sub-panels. Below is the wiring chase Synergy built to re-route the wires to the new panels.

Now the Rosenberger-Hagens can watch the sun set over the pacific and know that their solar system is also getting a chance to rest after working for them from sunup to sunset, everyday.

Helping Sebastopol Schools

2011-07-01T15:59:00.000-07:00

Today Synergy is launching our "Plug into the Sun and Support Sebastopol Schools" program. It is our belief that with school funding being cut at every level, it is our responsibility as a company to help out. Thus the idea for this program, to provide additional funding to Sebastopol schools.

We have already signed our first customer, parents of children at Park Side Elementary School, earning the Sebastopol Unified School District a $1,000 donation.

We will have a booth at the July 3rd fireworks display in Sebastopol, at Analy High. Stop by and join us to learn more about this program.

Below is our kickoff brochure.

Plug into the Sun and support Analy High School.

2011-06-27T16:03:00.000-07:00

Our schools are in dire need of funding. Budget cuts, larger class sizes and elimination of many "non core" classes are now the norm. At Synergy we believe it is our responsibility to support our local community and what is more important then the education of the next generation.

To help support our schools Synergy will be donating between $500 and $1,000 for each solar system installed by a parent of a student or an employee (stakeholder) of a local Sebastopol public schools. The amount donated will be dependent on system size installed, $500 for systems under 5kWh (CEC-AC) and $1,000 for larger systems. Our first school to participate will be Analy High School. With Analy a stakeholder at Analy will be able to designate the department to which they would like the donation assigned to. This could be the Athletic department, Band, Eco-Action Club, Science, etc or it can go to a general fund and let the school decide.

Our web-site will track the stated goal for funds at Analy and the progress towards this goal. In addition we will also show the difference Analy families are making in the tons of CO2 they are reducing from our community by going solar. Now is the time to look at solar, reduce your current expenses, fix your utility costs, help improve the environment and help support Analy High School.

Synergy - A Community Builder

2011-06-10T20:31:00.000-07:00

We believe every family, community and business can play a powerful role in creating an environmentally sustainable way of life through Renewable energy sources, creating a smaller carbon footprint and leaving the world a better place for future generations. As a company we focus on lowering the carbon footprint of our internal operations, and that of every customer we serve.

We strive to improve our local economy by purchasing our products locally whenever possible, and providing our customers with exceptional renewable energy solutions and our employees with jobs they can take pride in. It is our belief that if we all do our part to improve our local communities, we will leave this world a better place for the generations that follow.